Comments in NextGen UI

When the NextGen UI first started its Preview period, comments on individual expenses were visible on the bottom of expense page, below the cost tracking fields. I believe this to be true, but my memory could be less than perfect in this regard...

Regardless, now it seems as though the only place to view comments made on an expense is in the Report Timeline. When I go into an individual expense, the comment on that expense is nowhere to be found. I'm assuming that this is not correct, and is just a bug in the midst of the finishing touches that are being put on the new UI. I've checked a half dozen employees where I know there are comments on expenses, different computers, and different web browsers, and I can't view comments on individual expenses in any situation.

Before I submitted a ticket to Concur to let them know, I just wanted to ask if anybody else had been experiencing this issue, or if it's just always been this way and I've just not noticed it.

Re: Comments in NextGen UI

Hi Josh.

You are correct. When entering or editing an expense in the report, before submission, the comment box is located beneath the expense coding information. After submission and processing, the only place to view the comments is in the Report Timeline. I'm not totally sure about this, but I think the comment box stays where it is until the report is fully approved/processed and/or paid, then the comments are seen in the Report Timeline only.

Re: Comments in NextGen UI

Thanks, @TammyK-N. As far as I can see, the comment is not visible at the expense level after it's been submitted, not just after it's been processed / paid. I've checked a handful of reports I know have comments, and are also still pending approval, and none of the comments are visible on the expense.

Maybe I'm off my rocker, here, but it seems as though having expense-level comments visible at the expense level seems kind of critical, especially for approvers. If an approver goes into an expense to check things, how are they to know there's a comment on it? Should we just advise our approvers that they need to check the Timeline for each report they approve? I know there's a 'View' link on each comment on the Timeline, but it just seems kind of silly.

I, as an approver, go into a report, 30+ expenses, over half of which have comments. Go into the Timeline, see the first comment, want to check the expense out, click View. Review the expense, eveything looks good. Go back into the Timeline, find the next comment, click View. But wait, how am I suppose to keep track of which expenses I've reviewed and which ones I haven't? What's the point of the Forward / Backward buttons on the expense page if I have to go back into the Timeline to see comments? I can go through all the expenses on a report using those progression buttons, but that doesn't give me any context for expense-level comments. That information can be crucial for my understanding of an expense's context.

I'd love to believe that this will be fixed in the enhancement pack coming in the next few months(?), since without it, this essentially renders expense-level comments pointless.

Re: Comments in NextGen UI

I totally agree with you, it's very cumbersome and time consuming to go back and forth. Many of our associates also use the comments section, as we've always instructed them to add notes to clearly explain the incurred expense. I also think they need to add the notes back on to the main expense, to be viewed and reviewed at any time, without having to click into another area.

We have found many of these smaller changes quite bothersome, as we have relied on "quick views" and icons to help point the way to where a certain expense may be processed in a report (like a personal expense). These small queues are now gone, creating more work to be done, to have to go into each report and dig to find what's needed.

Re: Comments in NextGen UI

Thank you both for describing your workflow and the experience you're having viewing comments. I've reviewed your feedback with the Concur Expense design team.

Making it easier and more efficient to perform your regular tasks definitely is a main priority for us. Watch for an improvement of this in a future release. (Here is a direct link to the Next Gen Expense Release Notes if it’s helpful.)

Re: Comments in NextGen UI

Agree the current status of comments in NUI is unacceptable. This is also crucial when it comes to the Sent Back Reason.

In the current UI you can easily see the sent back reason right in your Report Library listing. Or you can go directly the Report Comments section inside the report. In the report detail the lines with Sent Back reasons are marked by a ! and the reason is right there.

In the NIU it's excruciatingly difficult to find the sent back comments. As mentioned above they no longer show in the detail. What you see instead in the exceptions is:

Please review the comments for this expense and action accordingly.

With no hint as to where the employee should go to do that - instead they look down to see a blank comment field.

On the Report view you can see the first 2 words and then click a link which takes you to the Top - the oldest - point in the Report timeline. You might then scroll through 2 pages or more of timeline entries - entries our employees have no reason to see. At the very bottom of several pages lost among a bunch of other details is the most recent sent back reason. But since the link doesn't take you to the comment - how would you know you need to scroll pages down to the end?